One night during the time when I was working with a refugee program, I had a dream that I went to work and the English teacher didn't show up so I had to fill in for her. I was annoyed because I didn't have a lesson prepared, so I stood up in front of the refugees and told them a story that moved me so much by the end I was crying.

A man had three friends, and they all wanted to visit him. The first was very polite and had excellent manners and followed all the social rules: he wore clean clothes, brought a lavish gift for his host, and called ahead of time to ask if it was a good time to come over. The second was a little less-so, and brought a less expensive gift and called ahead to let his host know he was on the way, but not to ask permission per se. The third was very impolite and showed up unannounced in dirty clothes with no gift for his host. But the friend was equally delighted to see all three of them just the same.

The message was that God doesn't care if we follow all the rules or do everything perfectly: he just wants us to come to him. And he will always be happy to see us when we show up.